Detour Through the Hellmouth
by Robin La Rosa
Summary: As Buffy Summers is going about her same old mundane routine, she crosses paths with a skillful, intriguing outsider who is passing through Sunnydale.


As Buffy Summers made her usual rounds through one of the multiple Sunnydale cemeteries, she got the feeling that she wasn't alone. The countless vampires that lurked behind mausoleums and gravestones attempting to get a shot of their own at defeating the infamous Slayer were not the cause of her feeling. She was accustomed to their familiar presence. Her increased sense of intuition led her to believe that someone else, someone with an actual heartbeat, was going through the motions just as she was.

What usually gave her a thrill just bored her that night. Staking one badly dressed vampire after another without even putting effort into it simply provided unwanted distractions from that itching feeling that the other person was close by. She had already passed three piles of dust that she knew she wasn't responsible for. Whoever did manage to dust three vampires without giving away their location must have been pretty talented for a non-Slayer.

She wondered what the person was doing wandering through a cemetery in the middle of the night—on the Hellmouth, nonetheless. But after staking a few vamps and still not even coming in contact with this mysterious person, she concluded that they must really have known what they were doing.

Glancing at her watch, she realized that she had been on her patrol longer than she needed to be. Of course it wouldn't hurt to stake a few extra creepy crawlers, but Buffy was a nineteen year old college girl. Even Slayers needed their beauty sleep. It was almost 4 o'clock in the morning, and sunrise was in a couple of hours. And a few more hours after that, she needed to be in Psychology 101. If she didn't leave the cemetery soon, she would never be able to wake up for class.

But she didn't want to leave until she found out who the hell that person was and why they were encroaching on her territory.

Almost as if on cue, a man flew through the air at her full force, landing right by her feet. She looked down at his curled up body, looked back up, and fixed her eyes on a vampire wearing an AC/DC shirt and ripped jeans.

"Nice outfit. Too bad the '70s ended, like, forever ago," Buffy said sarcastically to the vamp. Just as she was about to attack him and plunge a stake through his still heart, the man on the ground in front of her rose quickly and tackled the vampire to the ground.

For a moment Buffy was shocked. She was used to doing all the impressive vampire slayings. Her friends all had to work as a group to stake one measly vampire when she could take on a whole village's worth on her own. It wasn't every day that an average human who lacked her enhanced Slayer skills could hold their own in a fight.

But somehow the guy did...for awhile at least. She was going to let him have that one to stake by himself, considering the two were already into a heated brawl, but before she could stop it, the vampire was shoving the guy against the side of a mausoleum. The mohawked vamp held the guy a few inches off the ground by wrapping his hands around his neck, either about to snap his neck or just strangle him. Buffy heard him say some lame line about how he would "drink every last drop of blood" out of the man. Now was the time to intervene.

"If you're not going to play nice," she said as she pulled him off the guy by yanking his collar back, "then get the hell out of my town." She tossed him to the ground effortlessly. He immediately got to his feet and lunged for her, not wasting a moment. With her quick reflexes, she ducked at the last second. He nearly tumbled over himself because he probably didn't expect her to be so quick on her feet. _Newbie,_ she thought to herself with a laugh as she punched him in the gut and stabbed the stake through his heart in one swift motion. He immediately turned to dust. With a satisfactory smile, she placed her wooden stake in the pocket of her zip-up sweatshirt and turned around to face the human she had just saved.

"What are you doing wandering around a cemetery in the middle of the night?" she asked him, placing her hands on her hips.

He was rubbing his neck where the vampire had just been gripping him as he leaned up against the mausoleum for support. By the way he looked at her, it was obvious he wasn't expecting a short skinny blonde girl dressed in a pink sweatshirt and bright blue jeans. "I could ask you the same question, lady."

Buffy scoffed. Sometimes men were so ungrateful when they realized their savior was a teenage girl. "Well, this 'lady' just saved your ass."

"I didn't need saving. I knew what I was doing. I can handle myself."

She chuckled. "Apparently not. That vamp was about to snap your neck quicker than you can even blink. The real kicker is that he was so amateur. He's a total cliché for a naïve new vampire."

"How do you know so much about vampires?"

She began to list the reasons why on her manicured fingers. "Because I'm the Slayer, this is the Hellmouth, my job is to patrol the cemeteries at night so idiots like you don't get themselves killed, it's part of my destiny...should I keep going? Or do you get my point?"

He gave her a doubtful look. "'The slayer'? You're the chosen, almighty saving Slayer?"

"Don't act so surprised. Girls can be just as powerful as boys. The best slayers in history were actually girls, if you do your research. We do the job better." Buffy crossed her arms over her chest defiantly.

He held up his hands in defense. "Don't get your panties in a jumble. I just didn't think Slayers were real, is all."

"Of course we're real. It's not like I'm the Loch Ness monster or something." She paused for a second and thought about what he said. "Wait, did you just say panties?"

"It's just an expression."

"Who are you to go saying corny lines like that in my town anyway?"

"That's the second time you've called this 'your town.' Funny how I don't see your name on it anywhere."

"Well it _is_ my town. It's my duty to protect this Hellmouth. Do you want to go questioning ancient prophecies?"

"Nah, I'll just take your word for it, I guess. Anyway, I should be leaving. Got places to go, people to see," he said as he finally composed himself and walked past her. She quickly turned around and grabbed his arm. His expression when she turned him around to face her said that he wasn't expecting that much force from a pint-sized girl.

"I'm sure you definitely do have 'places to go, people to see.' Explains why you chose _this_ cemetery, in _this_ town of all places, to slay some average vamps. Where did you get that skill anyway?"

"Not all of us are blessed with super strength. Some of us actually have to work for it. You have your job, I have mine."

Buffy shook her head, completely stumped."Who _are_ you?"

"The name's Dean Winchester, and I've got to go. I left the Impala running."


End file.
